Autumn in Tohoku by train

Our first trip to Japan took place during the cherry blossom season two years ago. We visited those places that as far as I know first time visitors usually aim to see: Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Nara, Takayama, Hakone, Hiroshima, Miyajima. We enjoyed travelling by railpass very much and are therefore thinking about another trip to Japan.

I have seen beautiful pictures of forests and woods with coloured leaves. Therefore we are planning for the second half of October. This time we want to discover new places and focus rather on nature than on towns and temples. The problem: nature and convenient train connections somehow seem to be mutually exclusive. Or am I wrong? Is it nonetheless possible to reach nice waterfalls, gorges, woods fairly easily by train (we don’t have any experiences in travelling by bus in Japan) and do some hiking there? At the moment we are thinking of visiting Mt. Takao near Tokyo, Mt. Fuji/ Kawaguchiko, the region around Nagano and Matsushima. Are there any other suggestions for fairly easily reachable nice spots to view autumn colours, preferably in the Tohoku region? – Thanks a lot!
Gundi

Though I'd like to highly recommend hiking along Oirase Stream in Aomori where you can enjoy veiwing both a lot of nice waterfalls and beautiful coloured leaves unless you hesitate to try bus trips, another spot that comes to my mind is Naruko Gorge in Miyagi that does not have so many waterfalls as Oirase but is very well-known for its spectacular view with autumn leaves and is fairly easily accessible by train. It's 25 min. on foot from Naruko-Onsen Station on the JR Riku-u Tosen Line and then you can enjoy about over an hour's hike through the whole path by the stream. You may also want to have additional pleasure at hot springs that are noted as another feature of Naruko.

http://www.kankou-miyagi.net/cgi-bin/ss_detail.cgi?ID=204002...

Geibi Gorge in Iwate with the highlight of a boat tour is more easily reachable (5 min. on foot from Geibikei Station on the JR Ofunato Line).

As Tohoku is rich of nature, you can reach woods at numerous spots faily easily even by train and on a short hike.

You may like to travel in the Resort Shirakami Sightseeing Train from Akita to Aomori. It passes by the Japan Sea and Shirakami Sanchi. The journey takes about five hours. JR pass is valid for this route. Winter scenery is equally majestic.

mm, thank your for mentioning Naruko Gorge and Geibi-kei. Both are in the same area and reachable from Sendai, where I will be when visiting Matsushima.

I have looked for pictures of Geibi-kei and think it is a very nice area. I understood that Geibi-kei Station is reachable by JR train from Ichinoseki. Can you only do the boat tours there or are there also some hiking possibilities?

tju, thanks for your suggestion; that sounds good. Meanwhile I have done some research on the Resort Shirakami, however, I got several contradictory results. One the one hand it is said that this train only runs on weekends during the season (whenever this will be?), other sources say it only runs in winter and finally I found a site saying the train runs from April to September. So far I am now totally confused. I tried to get information on the official JR website but with no result. Also I tried several dates (in September as well as in October; within the week as well as on the weekend) with the train schedule at hyperdia.com: only faster trains or connections with numerous changing of trains were shown.

Does anyone know a website with reliable information concerning the Resort Shirakami?

Hi, Gundi

It seems that when you land at the terminal of the boat tour, you can just have a walk and view the biggest walls of rock named "Dai-Geibi Gan" but I'm afraid Geibi-kei would not be a good place for hiking as it is a sheer gorge.

These are some useful websites:-

(1)http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/routemaps/conventional line.html#shirakami

(2)http://www/jreast.co.jp/akita/shirakami/timetable/index f.html

The timetable is in Japanese only. There are three different sightseeing trans leaving daily from Akita to Aomori, one of them goes to Hirosaki only, trains 2,4,6 leave Aomori for Akita ).

In the winter season ( October to April ), the trains are operative only during the weekends. All seats are reserved. Reservation can be done at any JR office where the JR Passes are issued.

Another useful website is www://jito.go.jp

Have a nice trip!

Japan National Tourist Organization is a useful source, you can call them if they are presented in the country where you live.

. . . autumn sites in Tohoku is Lake Towada around 3rd week of October and Mt. Hakkoda the 1st-2nd week of October. Timing is critical here. You can reach Mt. Hakkoda by ropeway and can walk to Sukayu Onsen in 4 hours. You might need a guide, which they provide for Japanese. Far as I could tell, you could sign up in groups, but only Japanese is spoken of course. Due to the high elevation, koyo views are stunning.

Here's a good site on Tohoku:

http://travel.japan-tohoku.com/enarea.htm

I'd take a look at the book ''Hiking in Japan'', ISBN 1864500395. It has hikes listed for all regions of Japan with access information via public transportation and smallish topo maps. Might give you some ideas!

Thank you all for your input. Every little information helps!

As fas as the Shirakami Train is concerned it will probably be too complicated to organise the tour for the one weekend we will only have during our 2-weeks-stay.

Yes, we do have a JNTO office here in Germany and they provided me with a lot of useful information for our first trip to Japan. Might be a good idea to ask them again!

Yes, I have read about Lake Towada and seen pictures with great autumn leaves there. I think it can only be reached by JR Bus? Does the JR East Rail Pass also cover these bus rides or are they only possible with the general JR Rail Pass?

Looking at the hiking guide you mentioned might be a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

Gundi